Yard News from boatyards and backyards

Dynamene, a restored Yachting World Five Tonner, recently photographed by Paul Bowden

The latest in our monthly Yard News series, from boatyards and backyards around the world

From the March 2017 issue of Classic Boat, on sale now. Buy or subscribe here.

SOUTHWOLD, SUFFOLKBoatyard photographer

Mero, by Paul Bowden

The Yachting World Five-Tonner Dynamene was found on the grounds of Bletchley Park (now a museum) and restored by Harbour Marine Services in 2011. This recent photo was taken by professional still-life photographer Paul Bowden, who takes dozens of stills at ‘stations’ along the boat’s length from a forklift truck, then splices them together to form a final image that is almost free of perspective, and all in pin-sharp focus. Each image takes a total of about 60 hours’ work. Paul loves seeing the entirety of a boat when it is out of the water, hence the ‘labour of love’. He used the same process on his own yacht, Mero, seen here.

IPSWICH, SUFFOLKSpirit Yachts doubles in strength

Staff at Ipswich builder Spirit Yachts

Spirit of tradition boatbuilder Spirit Yachts recently unveiled its new, energy-efficient facility on 21 December in Ipswich, adjacent to its current premises. To match the extra build space, the company has hired 10 new employees and will soon recruit two finishers and additional boatbuilders.

Spirit Yachts’ managing director Nigel Stuarts said: “We have enjoyed a successful 12 months and intend to sustain our current growth with continued investment. Following a turbulent few years for the marine industry, it is key for British boatbuilders to adapt to the market. We are responding to consumer demands by offering a wider range of designs, including bespoke projects incorporating the latest technology and our popular new cruising range.”

Spirit Yachts has recently started on a 63ft (19.2m) deckhouse sailing yacht and a 70ft (21.3m) motor yacht, with an order confirmed for a 52ft (15.8) sailing yacht and strong interest in the cruising range and a superyacht.

Spirit Yachts CEO and head designer, Sean McMillan, adds, “The additional space will house production mezzanines and a mechanical testing area. It will double the size of our existing lamination table, which allows us to increase the number of ring frames that can be built simultaneously and in turn increase efficiency.”

With access via a 7.5m x 8m rolling door, the new 750 square-metre facility will allow Spirit Yachts to work on yachts up to 150ft long. The vast entrance will also permit refit and repair work on existing modern classics with their keels on, meaning all projects will be protected from the elements.

GIBRALTARVictory Class wintering

The Victory Class wintering. Photo by Magali Bellenger

After another season in the bay of Gibraltar, most of the local Victory yachts are ashore for winter, reports boatbuilder Richard Toyne. As usual in this competitive fleet, there is a collection of scrapes and bumps to repair as well as several boats requiring more major work. V18 Boreas (grey hull) is steadily undergoing a major restoration as and when her owners have funds. The new planking and 90 per cent of the framing are complete and the ballast keel has been refitted. Next up will be re-fastening the remaining original planks and laminating a few frames into the extreme ends of the boat. Odyssey was back sailing following major repairs, after a collision in 2014 left her with severe damage to the topside planking and various broken frames.

FALMOUTH, CORNWALLLuke Powell pilot cutter school to build Vincent

Brian Pain, the owner of the Thames Barge Lady of the Lea, has been working for some years with the Faversham Creek Trust and shipwright Simon Grillet to develop a boatbuilding training platform. Now, Brian has branched into Cornwall and has formed the Falmouth Pilot Cutter CIC with Cornish residents Luke and Joanna Powell.

Their aim is to resurrect Cornish Maritime Heritage by training a new generation of young people in the art of wooden shipbuilding. They are setting up in the Rhoda Mary Heritage Boatyard at Truro and will build a 68ft (20.7m) Falmouth pilot cutter as a community interest project. Over the three-year build, the project will develop as a vocational training platform for maritime skills. The apprentices will not only build the vessel but also maintain and sail her once she is launched. For this project Luke has chosen one of the most famous and long-lived of Falmouth cutters, the Vincent. Built originally in 1852 for the Vincent family of St Mawes, she had a long career lasting in trade until 1922 before finishing her life as a houseboat at Freshwater, up the Percuil River near St Mawes. Today, some of her fittings, companionway, and spars have survived and can be seen incorporated into a local house. The new vessel, a faithful copy of Vincent,
will be called Pellew in honour of a local hero, the greatest British frigate captain of the Napoleonic wars.

New boats from Britain’s favourite builders

Two of Britain’s best known boatbuilders recently announced new boats. Cockwells of Falmouth is adding substantially to its Duchy range of motorboats, which currently consists of the well-known 27 (8.3m) ‘weekend’ launch and the recently-launched 21 (6.4m) picnic boat that can seat 12. The new boats, at 35ft (10.7m), 45ft (13.7m) and 60ft (18.3m) are from the pen of Andrew Wolstenholme, designer of the 27. The first 35, which is now in build, has already been sold “off plan”.

Not to be outdone, Cornish Crabbers in Rock, one of the most venerable names in British yacht building, has released plans for the new MkV Crabber 24, which incorporates a lifting roof, in the manner of a VW camper van – or, for that matter, a Broads yacht.

CHICHESTER HARBOURElkins classic electrified

Withy II sailing. Photo by Emryhs Barrell

Withy II, a 1930s gaff cutter of 24ft (7.3m) built by Elkins of Christchurch, Dorset, has been given a new electric saildrive, writes Emrhys Barrell. The 24ft (7.3m) gaff sloop originally had a Stuart Turner petrol engine, then an unsightly outboard. The new saildrive is housed in a pod below the hull and the batteries in unused locker space. Range at cruising speed is 6-8 hours and batteries are charged overnight from marina shore supply. The motor was supplied and fitted by the Thames Electric Launch Company and joinery work was undertaken by Tim Gilmore at Dolphin Quay Boatyard in Birdham Marina.

ULLAPOOL, SCOTLANDFlying 10 in build

Flying 10 in build. Photo c/o Johnson and Loftus

Boatbuilder Tim Loftus, lately of Bristol’s Underfall Boatyard, has moved north to Ullapool, home to CB columnist and boatbuilder Adrian Morgan (Viking Boats) and, more recently, Nat and Gill Wilson (lately of IBTC Portsmouth). The beginnings of a hub, it’s fair to say! Tim has now officially teamed up with long-term boatbuilding collaborator Dan Johnson and the duo are officially now known (“after nights of beer-fuelled debate”) as Johnson and Loftus. Their first new-build project is an Uffa Fox-designed (in 1949) Flying 10 planing keelboat, little sister to the better-known Flying Fifteen, at just 10ft (3.1m) LWL and 14ft (4.3m) overall. Casting the “wild” keel shape has been a challenge, and the build is in double-diagonal utile. The build is “semi speculative” in that the project was initiated by a customer, but once Tim had the drawings, he could not resist. The boat will be on show at the Ali Pali dinghy show (officially titled the RYA Suzuki Dinghy Show) from 4-5 March.

NETHERLANDSPain Clark’s own yacht restored

Lona III interior shot, c/o the owner

A project that has been six years in the making was finally finished last summer, when Lona III was re-launched after complete restoration at Tradewind Yachts in the Netherlands. She was designed in 1906 by Pain Clark for himself and built in Burnham-on-Crouch by William King and Sons a year later in 1907. The pitch pine and teak on oak gaff cutter measures 35ft 6in (10.8m) on deck and displaces 6.8 tonnes. The photos give the impression of a very high quality project, an unusual and beautiful boat brought back to pristine condition. Lona III was raced with considerable success by her several owners, first on the river Crouch, later in Ireland and in Scotland, and then back again on the Crouch.
“She had been out of the water and needed a caring hand to bring back her beauty,” said the owner.

BOYNE CITY, MICHIGAN, USANew sandbagger yacht

Tattler II – photo c/o Van Dam

Michigan boatbuilder Van Dam will be celebrating 40 years since its inception next year. The company’s self-appointed mission is to build handcrafted wooden boats to “Bugatti-quality – from tenders and runabouts to sailboats and gentleman’s racers – no two are alike”. The yard’s latest boat launched is this splendid sandbagger yacht Tatler II, for a client. She’s a “modernised design drawn by Eric Sponberg and based on the original Tatler but with a re-designed rig to make the boat more manageable. Sandbaggers take their name from their ballast (gravel in sandbags) and were popular at the turn of the last century for racing, with their extraordinarily big rigs. The next project to launch will be Catnip, a 30ft (9.1m) custom runabout, with art deco styling, and inspired by 1930s Ventnor runabouts. The craft will, says Van Dam, “be unrivalled”. We’re not about to argue.

BROOKLIN, MAINE, USAThis time it’s personal

Kara Su on her way to a new owner and a new incarnation. Photo c/o Ellery Brown

Ellery Brown of DN Hylan Associates has recently bought the boat that got him started in classic yachts. She’s a John Alden-designed Triangle, a once-burgeoning class of yachts designed to race as a fleet or (without handicap) against Bermuda One Designs and Sound Interclubs, classes that were also popular at the time in Marblehead, Massachusetts, in the 1920s. Kara Su, the yacht in question, was built in 1927 of mahogany on oak – coincidentally the same year of build, and length, as the 28ft (8.5m) catboat Molly B, whose recent restoration has earned DN Hylan a nomination in this year’s Classic Boat awards (classicboat.co.uk/awards2017).

The story is personal for Ellery, as it was a sail on Kara Su as a teenager in 1996 (“the first and only race I ever won”) that got Ellery hooked. He sailed and maintained the boat for many years for her owner – and even met his wife through the boat: “She helped me paint the bottom, in a miniskirt – I was smitten!”

WoodenBoat’s technical editor Maynard Bray cites the Triangle as his favourite cabin one-design sloop, both to sail and to behold (John Alden has an enviable reputation for aesthetically pleasing boats) and Ellery describes it as the “quintessential knockabout sloop”. The large mainsail is balanced by a small jib, in the manner of early bermudan rigs, and the boat features a deep cockpit, self-tacking jib and (as original) twin runners, although these can be replaced by standing backstays. They are also quite heavily lead ballasted and by reputation, decent sea boats, with berths for two in the spartan cabin, but room for “more joinery”.

“She’s not quite a basket case,” says Ellery, but would need re-shaping, re-framing, partial re-planking and a new centreline. Spars, cabin, coamings, sliding hatch and cockpit seats are “probably” salvageable. Please email Ellery if you are interested in this project, at ellery@dhylanboats.com.

During his time at Classic Boat, Steffan has sailed around London, been part of a failed Fastnet campaign, and put two yachts aground. The Daily Mail called his first book, Circle Line, “whimsically philosophical”, meaning his head is in the clouds. The rest of him lives in the South Downs.

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Classic Boat is the magazine for the world’s most beautiful boats. Packed with stunning images, we have the inside stories of the great classic yachts and motorboats afloat today, as well as fascinating tales from yesteryear and the latest from the wooden boat building scene around the world.